Samsung has at last unveiled its first PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD for consumers. The new Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 SSD is aimed at gaming and high-end PC applications and can deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and 5,000MB/s respectively. According to Samsung's own testing these devices, available in capacities ranging from 250GB to 1TB later this month, are up to 12.7 times faster than SATA SSDs.
"The new 980 PRO SSD reflects our continuing commitment to delivering exceptional products consumers have come to expect from Samsung," said Dr. Mike Mang, a senior memory business VP at Samsung. The drives are optimised for handling data-intensive applications, and thus ideal for gamers who play demanding modern AAA titles, as well as for consumers and professionals who work with 4K and 8K content.
To realise this product Samsung has pulled together advances in several key in-house component designs such as; the custom Elpis controller, V-NAND, and DRAM. As well as being able to achieve sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and 5,000MB/s respectively, the 980 Pro can deliver a device with random read and write speeds of up to 1,000K IOPS. These stats make the 980 Pro up to twice as fast as a PCIe 3.0 SSD.
To keep the Samsung 980 Pro cool under pressure, Samsung has employed a nickel coating on the controller, as well as a heat spreader label on the back side of the SSD. These measures plus Samsung's Dynamic Thermal Guard technology keep the slim form factor from bloating and is claimed to keep the drive temperature optimal to minimise performance fluctuations.
Samsung says it will be making the 980 Pro series SSDs available worldwide this month in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities. A 2TB model will become available before the year is out. Pricing starts at US$89.99 for the 250GB model.
